This invention relates to a storage sleeve and a method of manufacturing the same. In particular, the invention relates to a storage sleeve, of the type used to store posters and art work prints, for point of sale display purposes.
Conventional such sleeves include a rectangular pocket or pouch, formed from a sheet of clear PVC film, folded over itself, with two of its overlying edges sewen together, leaving the edges opposite the fold line unattached, to provide a mouth for the pocket. A corrugated cardboard or polypropylene panel is slidably located inside the pocket, to provide it with rigidity, and the posters or prints, for display, can be slipped into the pocket, between the PVC film and the cardboard or polypropylene panel, so that their printed sides are viewable through the PVC film. Unfortunately, however, such conventional sleeves tend to disintegrate around the opening or mouth, particularly along the sewen seams on either side of the mouth, and at their corners. This problem is exacerbated by movement of the reinforcing panel in the pocket, which can leave the pockets' vulnerable sewen edges largely unprotected from scuff damage.
An apparently obvious solution to these problems would be to extend the reinforcing panel right up to the edges and corners of the pocket and to fix the reinforcing panel to the pocket, around its periphery. However, it has not so far proven possible to sew a pocket together, in this way, because relative movement of the two layers of flexible PVC film and the rigid panel cannot be controlled, during the sewing process; when sewing is attempted, the PVC film tends to buckle up and the buckled portions then become trapped in the sewen seams.